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Himalaya Travels - Photos - Climbing - Trekking

Welcome to HimalayaMasala

The Himalayas, or Himalaya is the greatest mountain range on earth. Our website brings you travel stories, photos, climbing and trekking adventures from the Himalaya. We mix genres that others won't, so we also bring you news and politics from the Himalayan countries - Nepal, India, Bhutan, Tibet and Pakistan.

Dennis Urubko has reached the summit of Kangchenjunga via the North Ridge, climbing solo above 7650m. He took just four and a half hours to reach the summit.

The Himalaya and Karakoram ranges contain all the 14 mountains in the world that exceed 8000 metres, including Everest, K2 and Kangchenjunga. Together with the Hindu Kush, they also contain the great majority of the world's 7000m peaks. Our Ascent Book provides a rich record of recent climbs in the Himalaya, Karakoram and Hindu Kush mountains.Browse our mountaineering database

Defending Human Rights in Tibet

Since 2011, over 100 Tibetans have set fire to themselves in protest at Chinese rule. Many of the protests have place beyond the limits of the Tibet Autonomous Region, in parts of eastern Tibet now incorporated into the Sichuan and Qinghai provinces of China.Tibetan protests mapped

On the Blog...

12 May 2014
Writer Peter Matthiessen died on 5 April 2014. Many people know him best for his account of a journey through the Himalaya, published as The Snow Leopard. But he was also a novelist of sweeping accomplishment and ambition, and a courageous friend of the Native American people.

6 September 2013
270,000 British nationals visit Pakistan each year. But the British government is now advising against travel to large parts of Pakistan. Is it xenophobic to talk about the hazards of travel in Pakistan?

31 July 2013
11 people, 10 of them foreign climbers, were murdered at Nanga Parbat Base Camp in Pakistan in June. The massacre, said to be in response to US drone strikes, was part of a wave of atrocities carried out across Pakistan.

5 May 2013
Climbers Ueli Steck, Simone Moro and Jonathan Griffith were attacked high on the slopes of Everest last week by a mob of Sherpas. The aftermath reflects a culture of impunity in Nepal, and the growing power of foreign-owned expedition businesses.

The border between Tibet and India is a British invention, imposed secretly on Tibet while China was in eclipse. India and China went to war over it in 1962. South of the international border there's another border - India's "Inner Line. " It divides Indians and plagues travellers.

Tungnath is the place where Shiva’s arms emerged from the earth after his underground flight from the Pandava brothers. It's the highest temple in India, standing 3680m above sea level on the mountain ridge dividing the Alaknanda River from the Mandakini.

Photos of Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand (formerly called Uttaranchal), including the Kumaon and Garhwal Himalaya.

What's in a name?

The Himalayan ranges are sometimes called the Himalayas, and sometimes called the Himalaya. The name Himalaya seems to be at least as old as the Mahabharata, and means "abode of snow" in Sanskrit.

Variants of the name are well-established in various modern Indian languages. In these languages the word would be unchanged in the plural. The suffix "s" is now so commonplace that it probably won't go away, but it is just a European corruption of the local name. The name Himalaya better reflects local usage and history, and is becoming the favourite in scholarly usage too.Himalaya or Himalayas?